Abstract

As an academic who teaches and researches within Indigenous Studies, a common question I'm subject to is: 'So are you Indigenous?'. As a non-Indigenous academic, this is an important question depending on the positioning of who is asking. The question can require a careful accounting of my standpoint, responsibility, and relationship to the disciplinary space of Indigenous Studies. It is an important question. It is most frequently asked, in my experience, by non-Indigenous peoples almost immediately after I identify the discipline or school I work in. This non-Indigenous clarification or interrogation of identity exemplifies how Indigenous subjectivities are made appropriate to specific disciplinary domains in academic settings. In this chapter, I take seriously this question, 'who are you?' and 'what are you doing in this space?' by reflecting on my role and position as a white and non-Indigenous lecturer in Indigenous Studies teaching spaces by drawing on key insights from critical race and whiteness studies. I outline how critical race and whiteness studies can help to conceptualise key terms such as settler, occupation, privilege, knowledge, and power in teaching practice. Promoting racial literacy through critical race and whiteness studies is one contribution to decolonising the knowledges that circulate in public institutions and discourse regarding the nation-state, history, and national identity. Settlers have a pedagogical responsibility to work with their communities in challenging the cultural norms of white possession and the privileges that derive from it.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSettler Responsibility for Decolonisation
Subtitle of host publicationStories from the Field
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Pages21-35
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781040112489
ISBN (Print)9781032736631
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Sept 2024

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